Bhapa Chingri

About this Recipe...

Bhapa Chingri or steamed prawn in mustard and coconut gravy is a quintessential mouthwatering Bengali dish. Prawn or shrimp is Bengali’s all time favorite seafood and we make lots of dishes with this, such as  Chingri malai curry, Daab Chingri, Potol prawn, prawn with bottle gourd and many such dishes. Among them chingri malai curry and Bhapa Chingri are my favorite. This recipe is very easy to make, ready in no time and tastes extremely well.

Traditionally this recipe is made inside pressure cooker by steaming the curry in a stainless steel tiffin box in boiling water. My mother always used to make it in pressure cooker. But today I will share with you another easy and quick version of making it. I used my microwave to cook this curry. There is no difficulty to cook this curry, you just only need to combine and mix all the ingredients together in right quantity and microwave it for few minutes and the authentic Bengali delicacy is ready to enjoy. The slightly pungent taste of mustard paste and mustard oil makes the Bhapa Chingri a delicious dish. I would like to enjoy this dish with hot steamed rice.

Ingredients

• 15-20 Medium size shrimp deveined and washed
• Salt and sugar to taste
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Yelłw mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Poppy seeds
• 2 Tbsp Freshly grated coconut or frozen coconut
• 1/2 Cup Coconut milk
• 2 tsp Green chili paste
• 2-3 green chillies slitted
• 2 Tbsp Mustard oil

Directions

1. First of all soak both kind of mustard seeds and poppy seeds in little water for at least half an hour.
2. Now sprinkle some salt and turmeric powder on the shrimp, coat it nicely and keep it aside.
3. Now on a blender, add the soaked mustard seeds and poppy seeds, turmeric powder and blend it to a fine paste.
4. Now take a microwave safe bowl and arrange the marinated shrimp pieces, next add the mustard seeds and poppy seeds paste, green chili paste, grated coconut, coconut milk, salt and sugar to taste.
5. Mix everything very gently, add 1/4 cup of water for the gravy, few slitted green chilies and drizzle some mustard oil on top.
   
6. Cover the bowl with a tight lid or plastic wrap and microwave it for 5 minutes.
7. After 5 minutes, take it out from the microwave, stir it gently and again microwave it for 2-3 minutes.
8. When the shrimps will change its color and the gravy will also cook nicely, take it out from the microwave.
9. Your bhapa chingri or steamed shrimp is ready, enjoy it with hot steamed rice.